Pregnancy Advice Swap – Part 1 (books & maternity clothes)

When I was pregnant with Grace, I knew I would be hit by tons of advice whether I wanted it or not. To take advantage of that, I created a pregnancy survey that I sent to my friends. I even posted the survey on Craigslist!

Over the next several weeks I’ll be sharing the results of my survey in the Pregnancy Advice Swap series. There is nothing scientific about my results, but during my first pregnancy I found them very interesting and helpful. I had 34 women answer my questions and now I’m asking you to share your experiences.

Rebekah’s Thoughts: Hands down Motherhood Maternity is the best, but so expensive! I was pretty pleased with Old Navy and Target. The selection at Kohls is pathetically small. Borrowing from friends was the biggest blessing!

Did you shop for maternity clothes at a consignment shop? If so, what was your favorite place?

No Luck at Consignment Shops – 6

Yard/Garage Sales – 8

Goodwill/Salvation Army – 6

Ebay – 2

Craigslist

Freecyle

Rebekah’s Thoughts: I didn’t end up going to consignment shops for maternity clothes. For both pregnancies, I was able to borrow some from friends and used gift cards. Plus I earned $120 in Target gift cards through online searching with Swagbucks.

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Comments

I just posted about books to read during pregnancy too! This time I’m reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth and it’s got to be the best book about giving birth that I’ve read – highly, highly recommend it!

I like Old Navy for maternity clothes – I had good luck with shopping online, since not all stores carry maternity and the selection can be small. I love the look of the Loft maternity clothes, but way too expensive for my budget! Motherhood Maternity clothes never fit me right and seemed cheaply made for how expensive they were.

We have a new women’s second hand shop in my town that carries maternity clothes that I can’t wait to check out, but just haven’t had time yet. And I definitely agree with borrowing from friends for family when you can!

Let’s see –
1. My favorite book is the Mayo Clinic Guide to Pregnancy. It combines the What to Expect with the week by week and keeps the really frightening stuff in the back of the book. You probably have heard about the Babywise controversies by now, but I’d caution moms to avoid it. The AAP has even spoken out against it because of how many babies have failed to thrive because of it.

2. Stores – good grief. Nowhere! Ha! It is so hard to find maternity in petite sizes that don’t cost a fortune. I had the most luck with JCPenney.

3. No luck at consignment shops. Our church does have a twice yearly “Blessing Boutique” where donated items are all free. I did find several things there.

Can’t wait to hear what other questions you had on your survey! What a fun idea!

I’m not a Babywise fan, but was an answer given – so I left it. The recommended routine suggested in The Baby Whisperer fit my style much better. There are some other things in that book that I ignored, but I think you’ll find that in almost any parenting book.

With my first, I religiously read What to Expect When Expecting… though that was back in 2001-02. I was really glad I read the scary parts because they prepared my for the really scary birth of my son. Now I pretty much stick with TheBump.com. It’s more of a fun reference now that I’m on #3 and it keeps me on track with my to-do’s.

As far as maternity clothing goes, I don’t just do maternity clothing. Anything with an empire waist that’s long enough will work. I find the clearance racks at Target offer a wonderful selection of affordable buys, especially when paired with coupons from Target’s website.

They sure do. I make sure that I buy ones with enough room… I’m picky. I’d say I have a 50/50 mix of maternity to “normal” clothing that I wear. It allows for more clothing that I can wear post-pregnancy, as well.